(December 2025) Sari Bashi took over as PCATI new Executive Director. Sari is a legal expert and a veteran highly-regarded activist in the human rights community both in Israel and abroad. She has a long list of achievements in leading organizations and public struggles to end the occupation and promote justice and human rights. She was a co-founder of the NGO Gisha and served as its first Executive Director. She also headed the Global Research department at Human Rights Watch and served as Research Director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). An expert in international humanitarian law, she has taught courses on the subject globally.
Sari succeeds Tal Steiner, who headed PCATI for nearly six years. These were complex and difficult years, spanning the COVID-19 pandemic and, of course, October 7 and the ongoing war in Gaza, during which thousands of Palestinians have been—and continue to be—held under conditions involving torture, isolation, violence, and degradation. This has occurred against the backdrop of an unstable political system, ongoing erosion of the separation of powers and fundamental rights, and a government policy aimed at crushing democratic space and persecuting human rights activists. In the face of all this, Tal led the PCATI team with determination, strengthened the organization’s infrastructure, and ensured it remained at the forefront of defending the human rights of every individual, even in times of war.